Thoughts on Life and Discipleship

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Click here to access NewVintageLeadership.Com. After receiving feedback from you and taking a long, hard look at how to improve the blog...the result is the beta version of New Vintage Leadership .

Here are a few things I'd ask before you click over:

If you link to my blog, please change the link. If you don't yet, please consider adding the new blog to your blogroll and/or following the feed. TimSpivey.com will automatically forward to the new blog in a week or so. But, it will help the new blog get going for you to link to it rather than TimSpivey.com. If you want people to know what it is... just label it Tim Spivey - New Vintage Leadership - or something like that :)

Consider giving to New Vintage Church or advertising on the blog. The blog is indirectly a ministry of New Vintage Church--a fledgling church plant that could use your support. The initial ad rates are as low as allowed--but will increase as hit counts increase. There are four small ads you can purchase by clicking on their respective icon. To give to New Vintage, click over. There's an ad you can't miss. Just click on it to proceed.

The blog is a great deal of fun for me. As always...thanks soooo much for reading.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Geoff Surratt wrote a simple but great post, entitled, "The Secret Life of Pastors," I'd like to share with you.

What is your goal as a pastor? What would bring real satisfaction? I know pastors who have 100 people who are convinced that if they could just get to 200 then things would be right in the world. I know pastors who have 1000 people who secretly believe that 3000 is the magic number. There are pastors who are just trying to get over the 10,000 hump, and pastors of 20,000 who think 40,000 feels about right. No one really talks like this, but deep down many pastors live this way. Having been on staff of churches at every level I can assure you that at the end of the rainbow is always another rainbow. No matter how "succesful" your church plant is, you will never arrive.

So let me give you four targets you can hit. I believe that if you hit these goals you will find the fulfillment you are looking for as you lead a church.

1. Love Jesus

I know, we all love Jesus. But is that what motivates us? Let me be honest about what I love; I love success, I love strategy, I love excellence, I love technology, I love a well-executed plan, I love crowds, I love speaking, I love compliments, I love new buildings, I love recognition, I love seeing a team come together. Oh, and I love Jesus too. What do you love?

We have to find a way to move Jesus to the center. We have to fall in love with Jesus. We have to do it every day. We have to acknowledge that all the other stuff of ministry is often a smokescreen getting in the way of our love for Jesus and we have to strip it all away.

2. Love your family

Don't just prioritize your family, take time for your family, and protect your family. Love your family. Become the kind of person your family loves. Be the dad that your kids love to tell their friends about. Be the husband your wife dreams about. Pastor your church but love your family.

3. Love your people

People are great volunteers, amazing leaders, and wonderful teachers. They are butts in seats. They are building blocks of a ministry. They are the tools in our hands we use to build the monument to us that we believe our church will one day be. To Jesus people were broken hearts to be loved; a grieving widow, a scorned woman, a desperate dad. Take off your rancher's hat, pick up your shepherd's crook and love your people.

4. Love your community

Loving you community isn't just giving away water bottles to get more people to come to your church. Loving your community means letting the pain and the brokeness around your church break your heart. Loving your community means bringing freedom to the prisoners, water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, shelter to the homeless. Loving your community means finding the people lost in the cracks and caring for them when no one else does.

The sad secret of ministry is that many pastor wouldn't wish their lives on anyone. Their prayer life, if it exists at all, is dry, their families feel abandoned, and the pastor is empty. There is a constant drive for more that will never be satisfied. In contrast; a life of loving Jesus, loving your family, loving your people and loving your community is a life you can invite people into. That is a goal worth pursuing.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Learning to forgive those who wrong you is one of the more difficult virtues to cultivate. The desire for revenge is one of the most robust and typical human emotions. Our movies, our music, our books--they reflect this.

Vigilantism is a great American past-time. I admit openly many of my favorite movies have the plot-line of "justice being served" or someone getting what's coming to them. Gladiator, True Grit, Unforgiven, and other "guy movies" have this quality. But, interestingly, so do many "chick flicks"--though it sometimes takes place at a less physical, more emotional level.

These books, movies, and music are popular because they come from human hearts that know what it is to be hurt and want "justice." The temptation for us to carry out our sense of "justice" by taking matters into our own hands or harboring hatred toward others is so strong that at times it's nearly irresistable. So, many of us give in. Just one problem with this is that we ourselves are not just. We judge others harshly and ourselves leniently, for instance. There is a bigger problem with taking "justice" into our own hands: it betrays a lack of faith in God as judge.

Once, in an age of religious faith, people believed that they could trust in God to punish the criminal who defeated justice in court. Harold Kushner notes: The Jewish Talmud describes an incident in which the head of the Israelite Supreme Court saw a man with a knife chasing another man into a cave. He heard a scream and saw the pursuer come out of the cave with his knife dripping blood. The man laughed at the rabbi, saying, “You probably believe I did something terrible, but the evidence is all circumstantial, and, besides, there is no second witness, as the law requires. There is nothing you can do to me. As the Talmud tells it, before the man had taken 10 steps, a snake bit him and he died.

As secularism crept into society, a feeling that God was somehow detached from what was really going on gave birth to a form of vigilantism. Within the Christian sphere, off-track theology began to teach God's pacifism and non-engaged posture toward the world He created. God was made out to be like one of the hyper-lenient judges most of us despise--He allows wrongdoing to go unchecked. Or, in the social justice era, a mutation of the biblical pursuit of justice morphed into a sense that God has left it in our hands alone to pursue justice for the poor, etc.

Of course, at one level, God has done so. At another level, we must always pursue justice knowing that we aren't very just and that God is altogether Just. So, our view of justice needs to be consistently checked and carried out with humility. We also need a theology check: God is active in His world, meeting out justice himself as He sees fit--even as He calls us to live justly in His world. God, the Just One, says that vengeance is His, He will repay. So, when we are grievously wronged or injured by others, we refuse to return evil for evil--because God will carry out justice as He sees fit. When we see injustice in the world, we remember that God sees and will respond justly.

Paul writes:

"Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:19-21).

The difference between seeking justice for ourselves or others and seeking vengeance for ourselves or others can be a nuanced one. God who knows the heart, knows the difference. I wonder sometimes if we do. We seem very sure of our views of justice. We also seem to think it's up to us. God isn't a laissez-faire moralist. He is engaged in the world and we are called by Him to do justly. However, we must recognize the limit's of our sense of justice, acknowledging God's Lordship over all as we pursue justice in the world.

Trusting in God's justice is the foundation of learning to forgive others, and vitally important to living joyfully and justly in this world. It's a huge chunk of gospel to realize that God not only abounds in mercy, but in justice. The parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21ff.) reminds us also of how much we've been forgiven and how we ought to respond as the Forgiven to others who "owe us" or others.

So then, how do we live graciously toward those who "owe" us and others in this world while also seeking justice?

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Yesterday, I spent some time with a long-time mentor. I was describing some leadership issues and asked for his advice. He cited a Latino farming proverb. I won't try to say it in Spanish, I'll just offer it's meaning: "the avocados sort themselves out in the walking." Or, something like that.

I don't like avocadoes. I really don't know how that happened growing up in Southern California, with it's bountiful avocado groves. Because I don't like avocados, unfortunately, I also know little about them.

My friend and mentor told me that avocados are extremely easy to bruise (I did know that part). So, farmers used to try to arrange them just the right way in the box after picking. However, they experienced great difficulty keeping them from bruising.

Over time the farmers noticed that if avocados were simply set in the box, they would settle themselves in just the right formation as the farmer simply left them alone and walked on. It was his way of saying...there's a time to plan and to act strategically. There's also a time to just let things settle in as we walk on. Sometimes we bruise things up in our efforts fit things in rather than letting them fit. After thinking about his words, I'm pretty sure he's right.

Who knows, maybe I'll give avocados another shot. If nothing else, whenever I see one, I'll look at remember that there's a time to arrange things...and a time to walk on...and let things settle themselves in.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

I'm working on an overhaul of the blog set to launch around August 1. I would like to know if you have any ideas for tweaks, content items, or new features that you think would be helpful. Please leave them in the comments section. Thanks!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Preaching these days "misunderestimated." These days I read fairly regularly that preaching is too long, or is nice but unnecessary. Others, like Albert Mohler makes so much of preaching, they almost go too far:

"...preaching is the central component of Christian worship. But how could it be otherwise? For it is primarily through the preaching of Scripture that we come to a true vision of the living God, recognize our own sinfulness, hear the declaration of redemption, and are called to a response of faith, repentance, and service."

Mohler makes quite clear that preaching's authority and importance lies in the power of God's Word, not simply the act of preaching--which is why it's so important. I, like Mohler, would agree that much preaching today is in need of renewal. Much of what is called "preaching" today isn't actually preaching, either because it has little biblical foundation or Gospel content. Mohler writes:

"...we should define exactly what we mean when we say “preach.” What we mean is, very simply, reading the text and explaining it—reproving, rebuking, exhorting, and patiently teaching directly from the text of Scripture. If you are not doing that, then you are not preaching."

If that's what we're doing (and I agree that we are), then we need to pay attention to it. Some preaching has these components but makes little effort to insure people can understand what's being said in a way that captivates and convicts the heart.

At a practical level, preaching is vital to the long-term spiritual welfare of the church. Preaching provides nourishment, exhortation and biblical instruction that shapes people spiritually over time. It's also quite important in reaching those who are searching for God and find their way into the church for that Sunday.

Preachers should work hard to improve as exegetes, theologians and communicators. They should stay anchored to the God of the Scriptures, and avoid some of today's pitfalls:

Techno-preaching: preaching that overdoses on the use of technology, and starves for lack of clarity.

MySpace-preaching: preaching that tries to be relevant so hard that it's irrelevant. It's so "timely," it's irrelevant by the time it's finished.

Politi-preaching: preaching that is a political speech with some Scriptures thrown in, rather than a biblical sermon with occasional political applications. This one is huge today.

Seminary-preaching: Preaching communicated in a way that makes the preacher sound smart but is at an "intellectual level" that leaves everyone wondering what in the world the preacher is talking about. By all means, stretch people intellectually, but know the limits and check your motives as you do.

Narcissi-preaching: preaching that focuses exclusively on what God wants for "your" life, rather than "our lives," the Church, or the Kingdom.

All of these and more have the effect of shaping people in a particular way over time. It also, for better or worse, shapes the view of what God and the Church are about in the minds and hearts of searchers. It's really, really important.

No one is perfect in the pulpit. I'm certainly not. However, it's vital that we strive to be all God wants us to be in this area. Much of today's critique of preaching has less to do with the insufficiency of biblical preaching and much to do with the insufficiency of preachers. Preachers will always be insufficient, which is why we need to stay anchored to the Scriptures first. Then, let's work on communicating it's altogether beautiful content in a way that captivates and convicts the minds and hearts of the hearers.

If preaching in your church is anemic or thin...it matters. If preaching is both meaty and delicious--your church will be blessed.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The story of Louis Zamperini told in the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (author of Sea Biscuit) is so amazing it's hardly believable. But, it's true. Time Magazine awarded Unbroken it's book of the year award for 2010. It's not only a great story, it's extremely well written. For those with eyes to read, it's got Christian themes running all through it.

Here are a few:

The originality of every human life. Louis Zamperini had a quite ordinary birth and growing up experience. Just a part of what makes his story so remarkable is how ordinary his roots are. I just love reading how God works in the lives of everyday people. God works in everyone's lives, and does so differently.

Endurance. Everything about Zamperini's life is about endurance. He is an Olympic distance runner. He survives 47 days stranded on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He endures 2 1/2 years of brutally harsh treatment as a POW in Japanese prison camps. He then struggles to make his life work through alcoholism and the residue left by his experience. Still alive today and nearly 100 years old, Louis Zamperini inspires anyone who reads his story to hang in there...not to give up.

Forgiveness. After his conversion, Zamperini learns to forgive his tormenter as a POW: Matsuhiro Watanabe, aka, "The Bird." In a letter to his former captor, he wrote, "The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, "Forgive your enemies and pray for them.'" You have to read Unbroken to know what a huge deal such forgiveness is. All I can say is, Wow.

The Power of Redemption. Zamperini's life was spiralling downward rapidly. In his nightmares, he would choke "The Bird" to death. One night, he's dreaming of choking "The Bird" when he hears a noise that wakes him. It is the gasp of his pregnant wife, who Zamperini was choking unknowingly in his sleep. Through his torment and alcoholism, Zamperini comes to Christ at a Billy Graham crusade and the nightmares stop. He pours out all his alcohol on the spot, and his life does a dramatic 180.

If you don't have time to read Unbroken (shame on you!), below is a 5-minute biography of Zamperini. But trust me, read the book. It's awesome in every way. Heavy, but awesome.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I love the phrase I first heard on the lips of our last President, "They misunderestimate me." Grammatically off, humorously wonderful. To misunderestimate is to underestimate, and when it come to leadership in the Kingdom, there are many virtues and/or realities that we misunderestimate. This new series of posts will examine some of these.

We begin with leadership itself. With striking regularity I continue to hear people question whether we make too much of leadership. I think it's virtually impossible to do so.

It all begins with God. He then typically chooses to use leaders. He always has. Try as we might to convince ourselves that no one should have too much "authority" or that everyone has something to offer, we allow these beliefs, both true in their own way, to lead us to a "misunderestimation" of leadership itself. In fact, autocracy or failure to develop other leaders isn't proof that leadership's importance is overestimated--or that it's something to be feared. Abuse of power and poor leadership development are actually futher signs of a need for good leadership--which uses power wisely and is passionate about leadership development.

In this post, I'm not going to elaborate much on precisely what good leadership is. I've done so numerous times in other posts. This post's purpose is to say that for many people and churches, leadership continues to be misunderestimated. Some have been burned by bad "leaders." Some have simply never experienced good leadership and are thus ignorant of it's capacity. For instance, some churches believe it's "leaders" are leading because they occupy the office of leader (preacher, elder, board member, etc.) and thus gage leadership's value by the performance of those that occupy those offices. A leading office doesn't equal leadership. Leadership equals leadership, and ideally those with gifts of leadership would be chosen for leadership in the church. However, as we all know, it doesn't always work out that way.

This I know: Strong leadership is one absolutely vital component of a church or organization's ability to thrive. Maxwell's law of the lid is, if not 100% accurate...pretty close. A church or organization will likely not rise above it's leadership. So, we need to continue to pay attention to this one...understanding strong leadership as a blessing from God and a spiritual gift rather than something to be feared or kept in it's place.

Question: Do we make too much or little of leadership in churches? Do you think we seek it or fear it more?

Monday, July 11, 2011

"I really believe in you...I really, really do," one of my spiritual heroes said to me sincerely this past week with his hand on my shoulder. It was a simple grace, but most well-timed and warming. After thinking about the blessing it was to me, I wondered when I last offered such grace to someone else. Sure, I encourage others from time to time. Yet, I need to offer more of genuinely convicted encouragement. "Convicted encouragement" is encouragment one really, really believes as opposed to the more common or generic variety.

Most of us offer common and generic encouragement to people as a way of helping people "keep their head up" or to express gratitude for someone's service. It's the kind most of us offer most frequently. Such encouragement is far better than no encouragement. It's still a blessing, but it's a thinner one.

Well-meaning people traffic in thin encouragement, but wouldn't it be something if we all trafficked in the real stuff--"convicted encouragement." The kind we really, really mean. The kind that keeps people from despairing at a key moment in their life or ministry. The kind we offer when we know the person cannot repay us or they are looking for it. The kind that nourishes life and discipleship in by simply reminding someone that God is for them by hearing it on the lips of one of His people.

Real encouragement in a difficult time is like a warm meal to famished. Someone said a word of encouragment during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success. True enough, but I've also found it to be worth a lot no matter what the times. It's no wonder that in Scripture God urges us to encourage one another. We are to encourage each other in Christ so the Discourager doesn't win the battle for the heart's joy or convince people to quit on things that really matter--marriages, churches, ministry, life.

So, let's make today, "I believe in you," day. Or, "thank you," day. Tell someone at your church, one of your kids, or a church leader that you believe in them...you really, really do--and mean it when you say it. Thank them for who they are and what they do. Help them understand they matter. As you do:

Be specific.

Mean it.

And, you'll bless them in ways untold.

Question: Describe a time when someone encouraged you in a way that made a significant difference in your life or ministry.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

This past week I took a trip to the North American Christian Convention--the largest annual gathering of the Independent Christian Churches. I've written before, even recently, about my belief that the sectarianism that still separates Churches of Christ and Christian Churches is a sin we need to repent of. Thus, I won't reiterate this conviction here other than to say it's time more church leaders and congregations step forward and say so...then take some concrete steps in unity's direction. I was glad to see a number of people from acappella Churches of Christ present. Next year's NACC is in Orlando, Florida. I hope you'll consider attending.

Here are some reflections on the week:

Dudley Rutherford did an outstanding job organizing the week. There weren't a lot of visible hiccups anywhere, and the quality of the week in nearly every aspect was exceptional.

The praise portions of the sessions were ridiculously awesome and powerful. I loved seeing ethnic and age diversity on stage. The musical and spiritual giftedness of those leading worship was an immense blessing to me.

I thought this year's preaching was stronger than in year's past. In particular, I enjoyed hearing Dave Stone, Jeff Vines. Francis Chan and Jeff Walling are always great to hear.

There was a clear emphasis on increasing ethnic diversity in churches. As many of you know, this is a passion of mine, and the call at the convention was given with both grace and conviction.

Apart from those observations on the convention, I love attending the NACC because it's a great glimpse into the differences between Christian Churches and Churches of Christ that go beyond the simple issue of instrumental worship.

In particular, there are three emphases that I believe have led to the Christian Churches' renewal and rapid growth over the past several years:

Reverence for growth. Christian Churches are much less suspicious of large and growing churches and view growth as something to aspire to. Even right now, some of my brethren are immediately thinking their growth must be shallow or at the cost of depth or doctrine. Not so, and, my point exactly. Churches suspicious of growth will not aspire to it and won't achieve it.

Emphasis on Planting Churches that will Grow. Christian Churches are church-planting machines. They also plant with an emphasis on evangelistic growth. Domestic church planting is now in their DNA the way foreign missions has historically beeis in the DNA of Churches of Christ.

Culture of Collaboration. Churches and organizations tend not to view one another as competitors, but as partners. They collaborate, help one another accomplish one another's goals, and share knowledge openly. Churches and colleges, for instance, have a more symbiotic relationship than in Churches of Christ. This is because of a palpable mentality of abundance, rather than scarcity.

There remain areas in which Churches of Christ are stronger than Christian Churches--and these are observable at our gatherings. This is just one more reason greater unity would be a blessing. The strength found in partnership is really powerful. Strength in isolation isn't very strong.